Release/Liberación

We coordinate with the attorneys to be at the detention center as soon as payment has been received by the US Immigration and Customs Service.

A team member meets each mom with the attorney at the detention center with water, food and clothing. As soon as possible we provide our mom with a cell phone to stay in contact with her children, other family members and friends, her attorney and us.

We get our moms released as soon as humanly possible to minimize their suffering, both physically and mentally. Our moms don't stay in detention a minute longer than necessary. We transport them privately, comfortably, safely and securely to where their children are located, often thousands of miles away.

Ongoing Support After Release/Soporte Continuo Después de la Liberación

Families have found themselves trapped in the consequences of the zero tolerance policy. After they are released, there are many long term needs. IFT is here for the long haul. In addition to fundraising bonds, Immigrant Families Together:

Provides government and foster agency-approved housing when needed to expedite reunification

Provides food and furnishings to families

Provides transportation within the city

Assists in obtaining lenient visitation rights and release of children held in foster care

We are expanding our services to include money deposited to detainees' prison accounts for personal hygiene, soap, toothbrushes, food and phone calls while being held in detention centers. The conditions are inhumane.

We also have created a hotline called AYUDAS which is a legal referral service for zero tolerance policy immigrants.

Are you working with specific immigration attorneys?

How did this all get started?/¿Cómo empezó todo?

It began with Yeni Gonzalez, an immigrant mother from Guatemala whose three children were taken by ICE agents and transported to New York. Yeni remained alone in a detention center in Arizona, unable to pay a $7,500 bond. A group of American mothers heard Yeni’s story and quickly mobilized to raise bond money and then transport her safely, state by state, to New York. The group drove her by car because ICE had taken her ID, putting her up for the night at homes of even more volunteers. We also found shelter, food and pro-bono legal aid for Yeni. Her three children were soon back in their mother’s arms, and eventually her full custody. Immigrant Families Together was born.

A ten percent bond is a possibility in immigration cases, but with that comes restrictions. By posting the full bond, the court doesn’t impose restrictions on where the asylum seeker/mother can travel. This is crucial as in most cases the children have been relocated several states away. Posting the full bond allows our parents to travel to any state to meet their kids, and without being required to wear an ankle bracelet.

Wait, didn’t RAICES just go to Washington DC with a $20 million check to bail everyone out?

Yes. And it was denied. RAICES is doing amazing and important work and we are huge fans and supporters of all that they are doing. While RAICES continues to work on a grand scale we are focusing on one family at a time. Focusing on individuals allows us to not only post bond, but provide housing, transportation, pro bono and any other forms of individual support that each case may need. In the long run we are all fighting for the same end goal: to empty these facilities, reunite these parents with their children, and help repair the enormous trauma our country has perpetrated against these families who came here seeking a safer, better life.

Wasn’t the government mandated to reunite these families? Why can’t we just wait for that to happen?

They were and the US Department of Justice is already saying they will fail to meet the deadline imposed. Even more concerning, the Department of Justice is simultaneously seeking to hold unified families in detention centers indefinitely. This puts mothers and fathers in the unimaginable position of either allowing their children to grow up in captivity, or signing away their rights as parents. The situation could not be more urgent.

Are you a 501(c)3?

We're glad you asked! While we're not ruling out the possibility of establishing ourselves as a 501(c)3 in the future, we're entirely in the thick of responding to the acute crisis of detention and family separation, and that's our top priority right now. Establishing a 501(c)3 has some significant advantages, but it also presents some serious drawbacks to our current model, particularly when it comes to our ability to respond rapidly and effectively.

What percentage of your funds raised goes directly to the families you are helping?

In short, 100%. We’d like everyone to know, our entire organization is staffed solely by volunteers. Every penny goes directly to the Mom's fund to which it was donated for bond and living expenses after release.

When a mom's total fund goal,(bond and relocation funding, if needed), the overage goes into a new mom's fund to get bonded.

Why aren't you partnering with other organizations who were already doing this work?

We are! Like many Americans, you've probably just recently become aware of the many organizations, including RAICES, that have been working on border and immigration issues for years. These organizations were spread thin before the zero tolerance policy and family separation crisis; they have only become more so since then. We are by no means reinventing the wheel. In fact, we are partnering with a number of long-established non-profits, social justice and immigrant advocacy groups, and elected officials around the country to apply their knowledge, experience, connections, and influence to work in collaboration for a single cause: to free these mothers and reunite them with their children. We are grateful to work with them, learn from them, and support their efforts in the pursuit of this common goal.

Our Team Leaders/Nuestros Líderes

Julie Schwietert Collazo--Founder

Former bilingual social worker, current bilingual writer/journalist. Learned about Yeni's case on a radio show and reached out to Yeni's lawyer to say that she could activate a network of people who could post Yeni's bond, get her to New York, and provide ongoing support throughout her immigration proceedings. She set the ball in motion for what would become Immigrant Families Together. At present, she works with attorneys and advocacy groups to identify women eligible for release from ICE detention facilities, posts their bond, and manages media relations for IFT.